Heart Songs

<h2><SPAN name="SPRING" id="SPRING"></SPAN>Spring</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">O, the frozen valley and frozen hill make a coffin wide and deep,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And the dead river lies, all its laughter stilled within it, fast asleep.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The trees that have played with the merry thing, and freighted its breast with leaves,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Give never a murmur or sigh of woe&mdash;they are dead&mdash;no dead thing grieves.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">No carol of love from a song-bird’s throat; the world lies naked and still,<br/></span> <span class="i0">For all things tender, and all things sweet, have been touched by the gruesome chill.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Not a flower,&mdash;a blue forget-me-not, a wild rose or jessamine soft,<br/></span> <span class="i0">To lay its bloom on the dead river’s lips, that have kissed them all so oft,<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But look, a ladder is spanning the space twixt earth and the sky beyond,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A ladder of gold for the Maid of Grace&mdash;the strong, the subtle, the fond!<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_034" id="page_034"></SPAN>{34}</span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">SPRING, with the warmth in her footsteps light, and the breeze and the fragrant breath,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Is coming to press her radiant face to that which is cold in death.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">SPRING, with a mantle made of the gold held close in a sunbeam’s heart,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Thrown over her shoulders, bonnie and bare&mdash;see the sap in the great trees start,<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Where the hem of this flowing garment trails, see the glow, the color bright,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A-stirring and spreading of something fair&mdash;the dawn is chasing the night!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">SPRING, with all love and all dear delights pulsing in every vein,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The old earth knows her, and thrills to her touch, as she claims her own again.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">SPRING, with the hyacinths filling her cap, and the violet seeds in her hair,<br/></span> <span class="i0">With the crocus hiding its satin head in her bosom warm and fair;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">SPRING, with its daffodils at her feet, and pansies a-bloom in her eyes,<br/></span> <span class="i0">SPRING, with enough of the God in herself to make the dead to arise!<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_035" id="page_035"></SPAN>{35}</span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">For see, as she bends o’er the coffin deep&mdash;the frozen valley and hill&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">The dead river stirs, Ah, that ling’ring kiss is making its heart to thrill!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">And then as she closer, and closer leans, it slips from its snowy shroud,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Frightened a moment, then rushing away, calling and laughing aloud!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The hill where she rested is all a-bloom&mdash;the wood is green as of old,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And ’wakened birds are striving to send their songs to the Gates of Gold.<br/></span></div> </div></div> <p class="c"><ANTIMG src="images/deco.png" width-obs="25" alt="[Decorative image unavailable.]" /></p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_036" id="page_036"></SPAN>{36}</span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />